Monday, April 13, 2009

The Powerful Flood

Mother Nature almost succeeded in sinking this vacation for us. First, there were torrential rains just before we left that fell over southern Georgia and northern Florida. This water ended up inundating the various river systems, slowly working its way downstream and flooding the lowlands. Fortunately for us, it took a few days to reach the campground we were using at Manatee Springs State Park. In addition to the rain, it got unbelievably cold for this part of Florida at this time of the year. One night the temperature reached freezing! No swimming for us that day!

One of the more unfortunate results of the flooding was that all of the first magnitude springs along the Suwanee River ended up "going dark". That is the river level rose above that of the head springs so that all of the beautiful, fresh, clear waters were overtaken and blotted out by the tannin-rich waters of the Suwanee. Alas!

But we enjoyed the springs while we could. Manatee was still high enough above the level of the Suwanee so that it remained clear the whole of our time there. However, after we left, the river did overtop the spring and the park was closed until the flooding ends. As I write this, the park will be closed for at least a few more weeks.

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About Me

I'm a laborer working as a letter carrier for the USPS. I'm also a writer with over sixty published short stories, hundreds of pages of comic book scripts, scores of reviews, and several novels, among them THE FLOCK, THE CLAN, THE LIVING END, and others. In July 2009, Angry Films announced that they'd optioned the film rights to my novel, THE FLOCK.
My first novel, THE FLOCK, was published in October 2006. I also edited the Poe-themed anthology EVERMORE for Arkham House Books. I'm hard at work on my latest novel.
Tor Books now has the trade version of my first novel, in addition to the book's sequel (THE CLAN). My zombie novel THE LIVING END is now available, from Severed Press. You can order the new trade paperback Tor Books version of THE FLOCK here. My latest novel is WITHERING (written under my pen-name, Robert Mathis Kurtz).
All contents of this blog are copyright by James Robert Smith.